The specific objectives for our NIH summer research training program are as follows: (1) to provide qualified minority undergraduate students (five per year for 5 years) an opportunity for research experience in metabolism/obesity, nutritional, digestive, endocrine, and kidney related diseases by working with qualified mentors at Colorado State University. All of the mentors are doing research closely, if not directly related to the mission of the NIDDK;(2)to introduce students to research that would not otherwise be available through their regular course of studies; (3)to attract minority students to research careers;(4)To help students develop their investigative talents with the goals of increasing the pool of accomplished minority biomedical investigators and providing visible role models for other minority students. By providing a focused and in depth research training program with 15 different mentors in various fields, we will attract excellent minority students to our program and enable them to learn the necessary skills to enter a research career. An additional objective of the program is to teach the students scientific writing and presentation skills. To reach this goal, we will require each student, with the assistance of their mentor, to present a poster describing the research project on which they participated. The poster presentation is at the end of the summer program (usually the first week of August) at the summer undergraduate research symposium, hosted by the NSF-REU, McNair Scholars Program, and this NIH program. In addition, they will be required to make an oral presentation of their work to the program staff, mentors, and other student participants. During this process the students will learn to use various presentation technologies.